Benefits to you:

•    Life experience: of working and living in a different culture
•    An opportunity to serve
•    Personal development
•    A ’break’ from life in the UK
•    An experience of living with/alongside a religious community
•    A carefully planned educational process

BOVA recognises that the main beneficiary of a volunteer experience in the developing world is the volunteer themselves. We therefore attempt to enhance the educational benefit through pre-departure training, support and formation during the placement and debrief and ongoing communication after return to the UK. We hope that the volunteer experience will act as the stimulus for continued involvement with development issues, BOVA and the Salesian family.

Read a volunteer's view on reasons to volunteer here.

Benefits to Host Communities:

In some circumstances volunteering can be exploitative of the developing world. BOVA works hard to avoid this situation by carefully checking both volunteer and placement, attempting to match skills, interests and requirements. Volunteers are just one part of an ongoing Salesian presence, so while their contribution is valuable, the project in which they work will not suffer too much when their placement ends.